


You like flowers, Ranboo?

by Mythic_Myriad



Series: C!Tommy needs therapy! In this essay, I will.. [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Allium, Author is a Ranboo Apologist (Video Blogging RPF), Author is a Toby Smith | Tubbo Apologist, Author is a TommyInnit Apologist (Video Blogging RPF), Birds, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, If any cc expresses discomfort this fic will be taken down accordingly, These boys need therapy, Tommy and Ranboo talk, WE GET COMFORT THIS TIME BOIS, allium flower, platonic, ranboo And Tubbo are platonic husbands, talk of afterlife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-24 04:00:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30066324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mythic_Myriad/pseuds/Mythic_Myriad
Summary: “Ranboo,” Tubbo whispered while gripping the life out of Ranboo’s clawed fingers, “Ranboo, that tower is too high.”_______OR Ranboo listens as Tommy talks, and he learns some things about his friend’s past and death.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), Ranboo & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo & Tubbo, ranboo & ghostbur
Series: C!Tommy needs therapy! In this essay, I will.. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2211927
Comments: 23
Kudos: 504





	You like flowers, Ranboo?

**Author's Note:**

> This fic can be read completely separately from “Heroes Don’t Die in Cages, Yet I’ve Never Been Free”. They are written in the same format, but NOT the same world. 
> 
> This fic sticks to cannon (with a few personal tweaks) as of March 15, 2021. 
> 
> It takes place as Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo, and Ghostbur build their watchtower next to the prison as part of their plan to kill Dream. Canon be wild lol. 
> 
> Warnings: extreme heights, past/referenced child death, past/referenced physical abuse, past/referenced mental abuse, past/hinted at attempted suicide, Language, Hurt/comfort
> 
> WE GET COMFORT THIS TIME BOIS YAY  
> Please tell me if I miss any warnings, thank you!
> 
> Safe reading and enjoy!!

  
Tommy was back.

Tommy was back. He was alive. And he’s... different.

Sure, Ranboo knows that no one could literally die, comeback, and be completely the same. 

But this was  _ Tommy _ . 

This kid was younger than him and a literal historical figure! This kid fought and won  wars . He built a nation out of dirt and went through horrors that only few knew of.

And he came out just as annoying, loud, and as  _ Tommy  _ as before. 

So why was he so different this time?

Ranboo watched as Tommy built their watch tower. Their look out post that reached higher than the prison itself so that they could easily see if anyone came to break out Dream.

Ranboo tucked some wood under his left arm and walked over to help Tommy. 

But before he could, a gloved hand reached up to squeeze his free hand.

“Ranboo,” Tubbo whispered while gripping the life out of Ranboo’s clawed fingers, “Ranboo, that tower is too high.”

He could see it in Tubbo’s eyes. The primal fear. He knew what his platonic husband was so afraid of, too.

He had seen it. Logstedshire. 

He had seen it after Tubbo came bursting through the nether portal all those months ago, inconsolable and distant. 

He looked up at the wooden tower that Tommy, newly revived and fragile, sat on. His shoulders hunched over and eyes burning into the black stone of the prison roof.

Ranboo, unable to take his eyes off Tommy, squeezed Tubbo’s hand back.

“Hey Tommy!” Ranboo did his best to project his voice up to the teen. 

Tommy paid him no attention. 

Ranboo sighed, “Give me a second, Tubbo. I’ll have him lower it a bit. It really is too tall.”

Tubbo nodded his head and reluctantly let go of Ranboo’s hand. His fingers immediately wrapping around himself in a secured self hug. Tubbo bit at his scarred bottom lip anxiously, “Okay. Thanks, Big Man.”

Ranboo gave him a smile and began to scale the tower.

However, before he got even a foot off the ground, Ghostbur appeared before him.

“Hello!” The Ghost said.  
Ranboo grinned, “Hello, Ghostbur.”

The Ghost started to climb with him. “I’ve brought more snacks! I know we were running low, so I got some more. I brought steaks, and fish, and bread. Ooo I also brought some cake!” The ghost seemed to glow with excitement, “I thought we could celebrate Tommy coming back. No one ever celebrated that for me, so I decided that Tommy should have a celebration! Coming back from.. whatever that place was is not very nice, I’ll tell you. At least I think it wasn’t nice. Can’t remember actually.”

Ranboo liked Ghostbur a lot. He was nice to talk to, and he also understood what having memory issues was like. 

“Hey Ranboo,” the ghost asked, “Say, why does Tommy look so sad up there? Did something happen while I was on the snack run?”

Ranboo stopped his climbing. “I don’t know, Ghostbur. He just kind of.. stopped?”

Ghostbur cocked his head like an inquisitive puppy, “Huh, I’m sure he is just taking a break. Are you on your way to speak with him. Oh! Is that why we’re climbing?”  Ranboo found his footing in the roughly carved wood and started making his way to Tommy again. “Yup,” he said.

“Well..I have an idea!” Ghostbur tugged on his cape.

“Hm?” Ranboo hummed. 

“Why don’t you let me talk to ‘em?”

“I don’t know, Ghostbur. Tommy’s really fragile right now.”

“Oh.. okay. Have fun!”

“Thanks. Maybe you can talk to him in a bit okay?”

Ghostbur nodded and climbed back down to go talk to Tubbo. 

Tubbo was still looking up at Tommy, only half listening to the ghost beside him.

Ranboo noticed how tight Tubbo’s fingers dug into his coat sleeves. This whole thing was a mess. 

  
Maybe Tubbo should talk to Tommy? Tommy doesn’t seem to like Ranboo very much. 

Ranboo thought they were friends. At least he hoped they were, and it seemed to be the case when he found the allium still in Tommy’s hidden chest. But then Tommy burned it when he tried to give it back to him. And Tommy yelled at him and accused him of “stealing” Tubbo away. 

_ Tubbo  _ should  talk to Tommy instead. They were best friends. Brothers. A bond forged in the cruelest of wars and blood. Ranboo showed up after all that. 

Nobody, not even Tubbo when he woke up from night terrors, talked about the L’Manburg wars. Ranboo barely even knew what Pogtopia was. He was pretty sure it was some other former nation, but it could have been a battle name too. 

Ranboo was not fit to talk to Tommy. Maybe he should just head back down and send Tubbo up. But Tubbo barley looked like he could hold himself together. 

Yeah, no, two guys in the process of full on panic attacks was not the way to go with this.

Maybe he should have let Ghostbur talk to Tommy then. But Tommy looks like he desperately needs someone to talk to. Not to listen to whatever endless, adorable rant that Ghostbur was bound to go on. 

Maybe Ranboo actually was their best bet at the moment. 

But it didn’t matter anyways. Ranboo was already at the top of the tower. 

“Hey,” Ranboo said calmly, “got room for one more?”

Tommy jumped so hard that Ranboo had to quickly grasp his arm to keep him from falling off the absurdly long tower. 

Through his enhanced hearing, he heard Tubbo gasp in horror. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!”

“Shit, Ranboo, give a man a warning next time, will ya?” Tommy laughed it off, but the laugh sounded strained, tired. “Do that again and I’ll have your head, Bitch.”

Despite his words, Tommy scooted over a bit for Ranboo to sit beside him. Ranboo barely fit. They sat shoulder to shoulder facing the prison, their legs squashed together.  
  


Ever since Tommy came back, he has been asking people not to talk to him about his death. Anytime someone asks any questions he gets irritated and cusses at them.  
Regardless of whether or not he was previously talking about it himself. 

So instead of pressing, Ranboo patiently waited. 

He didn’t look at Tommy. He looked at the clouds, the trees, and the water below them. Dutifully avoiding the prison. It was a lovely view if you simply blocked it from your mind. 

Unfortunately, Ranboo was pretty sure it was all Tommy was seeing. Tommy seemed focused of the prison and nothing else. Not even the four birds that flew freely above them.

Ranboo tried to sit as still and relaxed as he could. Ignoring the want to sway his legs back and forth.

The birds really were beautiful. They were robins. Red tuffs on their breasts. They were proud, confidant, loud, brazen. They reminded him of Tommy. 

Or at least how Tommy used to be. How he pretends to be now. 

Following Ranboo’s gaze, Tommy also looks towards the robins. Finally breaking his staring match with the prison. 

Ranboo kept his eyes on the birds, but, out of the very corner of his eyes, he saw Tommy smile.

It was small. Nothing like the big ones that he used to parade around. No it wasn’t one of those. This one was soft, almost nonexistent. This one was real.

Tommy pursed his lips and began to whistle. It was a clear sound. Barely human in sound. It fit in perfectly with the robin’s song.

To Ranboo’s awe, he watched as a single robin broke from the other three of the flock and dove towards them. The little bird landing gracefully on Tommy’s outstretched hand.

Ranboo held his breath, not sure what he was afraid to scare away most. The Robin on Tommy’s hand, or the smile on Tommy’s face.

The bird cooed at Tommy and fluttered it’s wings. 

Unlike Ranboo, Tommy seemed completely comfortable with the robin. 

“Go on,” Tommy muttered to the robin, “your family is waiting for you.”

He whistled again, and the bird took off. 

Tommy’s blue eyes followed the bird as it flew over the prison to join the others. Soon the birds were out of sight. 

“I’m gonna be ‘onest with ya, Ranboo. Okay?”

Ranboo simply turned his head towards Tommy.

“I don’t like you at all.” Tommy said flatly. There was no actual hate in his voice. In fact, it sounded rehearsed. Like he was saying it just because it was what people expect of him. 

Ranboo kept silent. 

Tommy’s still outstretched hand fell back to his lap.Tommy’s eyes followed his hand. “No. That’s a lie.”

“That’s a lie. I don’t hate you, Ranboo. I mean I did. For a bit. I think. But I don’t know if that was real hate or just- I don’t know.” Tommy’s picked at his fingernails.

The nails were scarred over, some missing, some bloody, some burned. Like he was scratching at obsidian walls or dipping his fingertips in lava. Maybe, Ranboo thought, he reached out for help when Dream beat him and forgot that the lava was so close. The horrid thought caused him to look away from Tommy and back to the prison.

“I see the way Tubbo looks at you. I wasn’t jealous, I promise. Wait- Maybe I was? I- no Tommy Innit doesn’t get jealous. Fuck, what am I talking about. I _mean_ ,” Tommy sighed, “I see that you’re good for each other. He’s so damn _happy_ when you're around. Maybe that’s what made me so upset? I- Ranboo?”

Ranboo could feel his eyes mist up, it stung the inside of his lids a bit, “Uh hum?”

“I,” Tommy hushed loudly in that uniquely Tommy way, “I don’t how to do this.”

Tommy leaned closer to him as if someone could over hear them from this far up, “It was horrible, Ranboo. Horrible. He beat me to _death_. It was so much worse than exile Ranboo. You remember exile don’t you, Ranboo?”

“I do.”

“It was so much worse than that.” Tommy’s eyes were wide and unfocused, wildly shifting between Ranboo’s green eye and red eye. “I felt. I felt- I felt  Death,  Ranboo! It- there was a hall. I-I think it was called the Inbetween or something. And then it  hurt. It  _fuckin_ \-  it was so- my  soul, Ranboo, It stretched and was shredded apart like fucking paper, man! And then it was a  _void_.  Nothing and e-everything existed at the same time. There was so much information and-“

Tommy cut off, now looking directly, steadily into his eyes.

“Wilbur was there.”

Like Ranboo has said many times before: He had never met ‘alivebur’. It was like hearing about a distant figure. Like a character in one of Technoblade’s Greek Tragedies. He knew that Wilbur blew up L’Manburg at some point, but other than that. Well, no one talked about that either. 

“But, you and Tubbo wanted to revive Wilbur-“

“Not any  _ fucking _ more, Ranboo. He has been there for who knows how long. He was worse than Pogtopia, Ranboo! He is so powerful now! He could destroy us all! I thought that he would be okay after death. Like how he used to be. Like how he was before the wars, you know?”

Ranboo did not know. 

“He used to be so  _ good _ . A goddamn hero. He used to be my brother. He believed in freedom and peace. He was my best friend. It used to just be me, Wilbur, and Tubbo. Us against the whole goddamn world. Grand adventures and the fucking wind at our back.”

The wind howled at their backs. As they sat shoulder to shoulder on the tower. It seemed menacingly lonely now. 

“He _changed_ , Ranboo. He lost the election. We got exiled from the nation we built. Fundy, his own son, took one of his lives, burnt down our flag, and tore down the walls we built. And I was there. I was the only one with him in Po- Pogtopia for the lo-ongest time. He was so  angry.  So fuckin’ _angry_ ,  Ranboo .  All the time.”

“There was a time- after Techno killed Tubbo with the firework- that _I _ got angry. I challenged Techno. I shouldn’t have, but I did. I did, and Wilbur _encouraged_ it. He built a pit. _The_ Pit! Took our armor and weapons. And told us to fight to the fucking death. He _laughed_.”  
  


Ranboo couldn’t picture Ghostbur doing this. He couldn’t picture anyone doing this.Tommy and Tubbo must have been sixteen or fifteen at the oldest during this. 

“Techno didn’t fight you though, did he?”

Tommy’s eyes closed. 

“Wilbur didn’t stop him until I was unconscious and one more punch from death. He threw me in the ocean to wake me up. I had to swim to shore.”

“Oh my goodness, Tommy. I am so sorry.”

“It’s whatever. I’ve been through worse. I’ve been,” Tommy took a shaky breath, “through so much worse.”

Tommy struggled to stop his hands from shaking as he spoke, “Sometimes, Ranboo, and you can’t fucking tell anyone this- Especially not Tubbo.” He whispered, “ _Sometimes_ , when I close my eyes, I’m in the shitty cell with Dream. But we’re not alone.” Ranboo could feel Tommy’s whole body struggle and fail to control the shaking. “Sometimes, Wilbur is there too. Watching. Smiling.. _Laughing_. I keep waiting for him to call T- _Dream_ off. But he,” Tommy attempted to take a deep breath, “He never does.”

  
The wind ruffled their hair and swayed the thin tower a bit. They stayed pressed together.

“I have something for you, Tommy.”

“Heh,” Tommy laughed, “really? It better be fuckin’ good, bitchboo. I kinda just poured my soul out to ya, Big Man.”

Ranboo reached into his cloak pockets wrapping his claws around the stem of the flower. 

He pulled it out and carefully held it out to Tommy. The purple allium swaying in the wind. 

Ranboo held his breath as Tommy stared at him. 

Suddenly a hand shot forward and carefully took the flower from his claws. 

Tommy held the flower, almost cradling the allium in his hands as if it were made of glass. 

Tommy smiled. 

The real smile. The one he used with the birds. 

“You like flowers, Ranboo?”

Ranboo felt the sting of a tear falling down his cheek. 

“Yeah..” his voice broke while answering, "I do."

“You know,” Tommy said, “this is the first time someone has cried for me.”

“Well, first of all, that’s just not true, Tommy. I know that I, myself, have cried over you a grand total of _two_ times.”

“Pussy!” Tommy grinned.

They both laughed. The atmosphere lighter than it had been for a long time. Tommy took in a deep breath, like he had just tasted fresh air for the first time in years. 

“You know,” Tommy says to him, “I’m starting to think that this tower is too tall. Might be a tad bit excessive.”

“Goodness, I am so glad you agree! Tubbo was going to have my head if we were up this high for any longer I mean look at him!”

They both looked down to Tubbo. The scarred hybrid was pulling at his hair and walking in circles around Ghostbur. They both giggle at the sight for a bit. Then the laughter dies down.

  
“We have to kill Dream.” Tommy says.

“I know.”

“He’s gonna try to kill Tubbo.”

Ranboo nods, “We can’t let that happen.”

Tommy delicately pockets the allium, “Anything for Tubbo.”

“Anything for Tubbo.” Ranboo echoes.

“Also, Ranboo?” Tommy smiles, “thanks, man. For- well you know- everything, I guess.”

Ranboo feels his own smile answer, “It’s the least I can do. I’m really glad you're alive, Tommy.”

Tommy has to suddenly turn his head away to wipe at his traitorous eyes. 

He clears his throat, “We, uh, better head back down before Tubbo and Ghostbur come up.”

Ranboo laughs as a thought pops into his head. “I’ll race you down.”

Tommy’s eyes light up with a living fire. Before him was Tommy Innit. The _real_ Tommy Innit. 

“Oh, you’re fuckin’  _on_ , bitch!”

The two teens race down the tower. Nearly giving poor Tubbo a heart attack on the way down.

Despite Ranboo winning, and Tommy claiming that Ranboo cheated because of his 'freakishly' long limbs, the smiles never dropped from their faces.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!  
> This work was typed in the notes app on my phone and not beta read so if you see anything that ruined your reading experience please tell me and I’ll fix it! :)
> 
> If you liked it, feel free to comment, leave kudos, or check out my other fic!  
> Also comment if you just wanna scream about canon/lore cause honestly SAME. 
> 
> Have a great day everybody!


End file.
